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life

Reactions to 22 Miles

I got a nice variety of reactions to the fact that I ran 22 miles today. It was the peak of my training for the marathon in July. I’m looking forward to the next seven weeks of fewer miles and more healing for my body. So here are a few of the reactions I got to running this distance:

One jogger who noticed that I was doing more than one lap (3 mile laps) – “Wow, two laps today? You’re good.”

A man whom I often see walking his dog along my jogging route overheard me respond to the above statement by saying that I was doing more than two laps – he asked how many I was doing and laughed when I told him I was doing 7 laps today.

Laura – “How was your run?”

Jared and Kim – “How long did it take you?”

My head – “Well, that bodes well for the actual race.”

My lungs – “That was refreshing, why stop now?”

My knees – “Stop this abuse. You have no business inhabiting a physical body.”

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life

20 Miles

I have been looking toward this morning ever since I started training. This was the magic distance where I might hit “the wall” and really know what I was facing with my goal to run a marathon. I woke up at 5:30 full of adrenaline because I was in the middle of a dream about World War II. I got up and dressed and then drank 12 ounces of water before starting off.

I ran at a very consistent pace (25 1/2 to 26 minutes for each 3.1 mile loop) and finished the 20.6 miles in under 3 hours. If the first 20.6 miles of the marathon go like that I can run the last 5.6 miles at 10 minutes a mile and still finish in under 4 hours. Very encouraging.

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life

Ten Miles

I ran a full ten miles today. That’s the first time since I was running cross-country in high school. I amazed myself with the consistency of my pace. At three miles I was on pace, at six miles I was on pace, at nine miles I was still on pace. The amazing thing about it was that I had not run more than six miles prior to today. I had done some workouts on my bike that were equal to at least eight miles running, but biking and running are very different in the way they affect your energy so I was surprised that I could be so steady. That bodes well for me as my workouts get progressively longer in preparation for the marathon in July.